Rule XXIOn a motion made and seconded to close the doors of the Senate, on the discussion of any business which may, in the opinion of a Senator, require secrecy, the Presiding Officer shall direct the galleries to be cleared; and during the discussion of such motion the doors shall remain closed.

Lulu gets slapped

We have often thought of Bill Frist as a modern day US Senate version of Elmer Gantry, an opportunistic midwestern huckster turned hypocritical tent-revival evangelist with none of Burt Lancaster’s redeeming qualities.Yesterday, with tears welling in his rheumy eyes, the rules-challenged Senate Majority Leader took a turn before the cameras as Gantry’s old heavily slapped girlfriend turned prostitute Lulu Baines.Apparently hoping to surpass Shirley Jones’ Oscar-winning 1960 performance, Lulu Frist sobbed, sputtered and succeeded, only, in making himself look more foolish than he appeared following Harry Reid’s brilliantly successful parliamentary use of Senate Rule XXI to refocus national attention on the Libby indictments and the “cooked” intelligence that precipitated Bush’s supposed pre-emptive war.According to the Washington Post: